{"id":454286,"date":"2025-01-27T05:31:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T13:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/?p=454286"},"modified":"2025-01-26T20:55:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T04:55:35","slug":"la-fires-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/_zh\/education\/k-12-education\/2025\/01\/la-fires-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A beloved Altadena school, destroyed in the Eaton fire, looks to the future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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School officials are scrambling to find an alternate site for its campus while trying to support families, nearly half of whom lost their homes in the fire.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n

When she got the news, Bonnie Brimecombe was standing on a sidewalk outside her in-laws\u2019 house in Monrovia, where she had evacuated amid the chaos of last week\u2019s fires. It was a video, sent by a colleague, showing the charred remnants of Odyssey South Charter School, where Brimecombe has been principal for three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Classrooms, desks, books, the owl murals, the fourth-graders\u2019 quilt project, the newly planted native plant garden \u2014 all scorched by the Eaton Fire. Flames still lapped at one building, as the rest of the campus smouldered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was gone,\u201d Brimecombe said, choking back tears as she recounted the moment. \u201cAnd then all the text messages from families started coming in. You\u2019re just getting message after message, \u2018My home is lost, I have nothing.\u2019 The school didn\u2019t even matter at that point. You just think about the families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odyssey South, a popular TK-8 charter school in Altadena, was among the dozen or so schools destroyed in the Los Angeles fires. At least 40% of the school\u2019s families and 10 staff members lost their homes.\u00a0As of Friday, 5% of families were still unaccounted for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like at all the damaged schools, staff are navigating their own fire hardships while frantically scouring the city for new classroom space. Even as the fires continue to burn, the most important thing, they said, is to bring an element of normalcy to children whose lives have been upended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Searching for a new school<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As soon as she saw the video, Brimecombe and her staff \u201cgrieved for a few minutes\u201d and then got to work looking for a new school. They\u2019ve toured other school sites, churches, office buildings, even a vacant Bed Bath & Beyond. They\u2019ve talked to real estate agents and countless property owners who\u2019ve offered to help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome kids may have lost everything, but they could say, \u2018My friend is still here, their mom is still here, my teachers are still here.\u2019 It helps to understand, it\u2019s not all gone.\u201d
<\/p>Bonnie Brimecombe, principal<\/strong> at Odyssey South Charter School<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not easy to find space for 375 students. The first hurdle is enrollment \u2014 Brimecome isn\u2019t sure how many students will actually be returning to school once it reopens. Some evacuated to other counties or even other states, and it\u2019s unclear how many will return, or when.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another challenge is competition. There aren\u2019t that many vacant spaces in the Pasadena area suitable for a school, yet there are at least five schools looking for space. Not all have the same needs, and they\u2019re cooperating when they can, but there\u2019s still not enough space for all the schools who need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next obstacle is more practical. A vacant office building seemed perfect, but where would Brimecombe and her staff find hundreds of school desks and chairs? A nearby school offered to share its campus, but there wasn\u2019t enough space for the entire student body so they\u2019d have to split up \u2014 not a desirable option when students need continuity and to be with their friends, Brimecombe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n